Monsters
by Bligy
Summary: Some gifts are better left unwrapped. When Sasuke takes Naruto to Orochimaru, he begins a series of events that will rock the foundation of both their worlds. Monsters aren't born, they're made.


**Monsters**

**Written by Bligy**

**Summary:** Some gifts are better left unwrapped. When Sasuke takes Naruto to Orochimaru, he begins a series of events that will rock the foundation of both their worlds. Monsters aren't born, they're made.

**Pairings:** This fic is MOSTLY pairing-less. There will be NO ROMANCE. There are moments of Oro/Sasu, but they are for the plot. This fic is NOT something I wrote for pairings, it is plot and character based.

**Warnings:** Torture, and a good lot of it. Kabuto plays a large role in this fic. There will be rape, and possibly other things that I haven't gotten to writing yet.

**Author's Note: **Perhaps this is your first time, or perhaps you've borne witness to this before. Originally, Monsters was the first anime fanfiction I ever wrote, and I took it down partially due to lack of interest, and partially because I had no idea where I was going with it and decided that if I couldn't finish it, it wasn't worth posting.

This fic is for those who've requested it multiple times on my PM or email. I've had a lot of interest in this ironically only when I took it down. Fortunately, after some revisions, I've decided to not only re-post the bloody thing, but finish it. I'm currently around sixty thousand words, one hundred pages and I'm just over halfway through, methinks.

My plan is to post about a chapter a week. However, the chapters are rather large, so delays may very well happen. I know how this fic is going to end, now, so it'll be easier for me to get there.

Thank you to those who convinced me to continue writing it! Please leave a review if you like this it, as it is the readers who encourage writers to keep writing, and I've already lost my drive for this sucker once.

Cheers!

Bligy

...

The punch hadn't been unexpected, it hadn't come out of the blue and it wasn't without a hell of a lot of warrant. Still, it rang unpleasantly through his already-beaten body and incurred a sort of mirthful hatred in him that he'd felt so many times over the past few hours.

When he flew back and his head cracked against the edge of the dungeon's walls, sending spots against his vision and his world swimming, he had to decide whether to start laughing hysterically or cry. Either way, he wouldn't be stopping for awhile.

He'd come, he'd grandstanded, he'd brought a… gift.

"Bastard! Where the hell are we!"

A gift indeed, and Orochimaru had been pleased.

Said gift was now chained to the floor with shackles, but apparently not handcuffs – as his bruised face now gave testament to. The fact that the blond couldn't dive forward and punch him again was probably the only reason an all-out brawl hadn't started.

"Where do you think… dobe?" he added the last word as an afterthought, but it only served to drive the hysteria farther into his system. All things considered, he felt that he was doing admirably at not losing his mind entirely.

"You… We…"

The words were said with a sort of choked shock that Sasuke could rightfully admit he'd felt himself the moment he'd made his decision. No… he wouldn't be like Itachi – he wouldn't be like him at all. He was an avenger, yes, but no one ever said an avenger's path had to be alone. It was only implied.

When he finally opened his eyes, the spots receding enough that he could actually make out the blond tied firmly to the ground a few feet in front of him, he couldn't help the smirk that blossomed onto his face.

The orange-clad prisoner before him was irate and it made the situation all that more funny. The stammering mouth, the wide blue eyes, the body that was wrapped so tightly in bandages that he resembled a mummy more than a ninja: Naruto finally looked defeated. The thought shot a tingle of happiness down his spine. Someone was finally putting Naruto in his place, and that someone was _him_.

_At least_, he thought as he rose, _the idiot got to retain his favorite colour in clothing_.

"Why… why did… Sasuke?" the last word was spoken with such hope that it grated on the raven's nerves and shot his happiness and crying all to hell. The hysteria shrank back in the face of rage. How! Naruto wasn't defeated? He still had _hope_? He still thought that maybe Sasuke wasn't the bad guy?

"What?" he asked, tilting his head to the side and activating his Sharingan, which gave him an instant headache. Even with his recovery time, he hadn't managed to get all his chakra back and any small usage could cause pain. He didn't show the anger on his face at first, instead advancing on the blond, who didn't shrink back and retained that brutally annoying look of expectation on his face.

"Naruto," he shrank to his knees just out of arm's reach from where his friend was sitting, so open, so trusting even after their last battle. "I can't beat you, can I?"

The hope flickered in those eyes, blue clouding over with confusion, but he still didn't move, didn't object when Sasuke reached out and pressed a hand against the smaller boy's chest. He traced the circle of almost-healed flesh there, and couldn't help the small smile at the look of horror on Naruto's face.

"You… you… Sasuke, please, don't. We can go back, just let me go!" the blond pleaded, reaching out desperately and snatching a hold of one of Sasuke's hands.

The raven looked down at the tanned appendage with distaste. Naruto still had blood under his fingernails, probably a healthy mixture from both of them.

"Sasuke," Naruto begged again, his other hand shooting out to capture Sasuke's other wrist and they sat there for a few seconds, but it felt like eternity.

How could the blond idiot be so goddamned trusting? Sasuke had beaten him within an inch of his life with the promise of killing him… _oh_.

"I didn't kill you," Sasuke finally said, not even realizing he'd said it aloud.

"What?" the blond asked, the tanned hand's grip on his wrist increasing to the point that it was painful.

"That's why you think I care," Sasuke stated, lifting Sharingan-eyes to pin Naruto to the floor. The blond's eyes flickered a bit, and then returned to their normal determined snarl.

"That's right. You didn't kill me!" he barked, as though this was the point that he'd been trying to prove all along. Sasuke had a feeling that the idiot hadn't actually realized this important factor until Sasuke had pointed it out. That meant that Naruto truly had that much trust for him… for no reason.

"How is it that you can be such an idiot? We knew each other for barely a year and yet you were willing to kill yourself to 'save' me," he stated, shaking his head and shoving the blond off him. He wrenched the hands off his wrists and used the extra momentum to fling the idiot a few more feet back. Naruto hit the ground painfully, unable to guard himself. He turned around almost instantly, like a trapped animal – desperate and panicked. Sasuke was enjoying this side of Naruto.

"Why did you bring me here!" the blond demanded, his eyes flickering everywhere now that they weren't solely directed at his 'rival'. Sasuke watched their movements, from the crates stacked at the back of the room to the low ceiling, to the door that was locked from both sides, to the lack of windows – and thus escape options – and then down to the ring in which two very solid shackles were attached to the boy himself.

Sasuke didn't bother to answer. Naruto would come up with his own idiotic reasons sooner or later, regardless of what he attempted to tell him. If it weren't for the fact that he doubted the blond was intelligent enough to pull it off, he'd have sworn the moron was a compulsive liar.

"Why can't I use chakra?" was the next question directed at him.

"The chains," was the vague and almost non-existent answer that Sasuke responded with. They were specially built by Kabuto to offer only enough chakra required to live – and perhaps in Naruto's case, heal – but not enough to actually mold and use as a weapon. It was one of many little tricks he'd learnt about in his short time there.

"How long have we been here?" the blond asked, his voice still shrill and almost-panicked. At least he wasn't stupidly confident.

"Three days," Sasuke answered again, guessing that there probably wasn't any harm in it.

"Time is up, Sasuke-kun," Kabuto announced as he entered the room. The man had a bag with him that was undoubtedly filled with nasty objects that he'd rather not think of.

He looked at Naruto one last time and saw the blue eyes – rapidly turning red – narrow in hatred.

"YOU!" the blond screamed and a sudden blast of red chakra filled the room, despite the chains.

Sasuke moved before he even realized he was doing it and delivered a firm chop to the back of Naruto's head that made the blond crumple slowly. Blue eyes stared up at him as he fell and he mouthed the word 'why' at him again.

"Thank you, Sasuke-kun," Kabuto said, his glasses shining in the dark light as he placed the bag down casually and removed all manner of equipment that Sasuke was now _damn_ sure he didn't want any knowledge of… at least not for a little while. First he needed to accustom himself to the fact that he was here and that he'd brought the idiot with him.

"You need to get better shackles," Sasuke stated calmly as he left the room.

He wasn't more than a few feet away from the closed door when he heard the horrible painful shrieks emitted from behind the thick wood. He stopped for just a second before continuing on his way.

Naruto wasn't getting any kind of special treatment. Sasuke had no doubts that he'd soon be tortured as well, if only to make sure of his talents and strengths. Oddly enough, he was looking forward to it.

With that cheery thought in his fucked up mind, he left the dungeons nearly whistling along to the sound of his best friend's screams.

...

Tsunade rarely felt panicked anymore. Any time she felt the least bit of stress, she'd start drinking and it would magically disappear. Unfortunately, with her new placement as Hokage, that wasn't really an option.

Responsibility sucked… but what quite possibly sucked even worse was the news that the copy-nin had just brought to her.

"It was raining… the scent was washed away. They were both gone."

The words were so very clear and yet so very vague. _They were both gone._ What the _hell_ did that mean? Were they dead? Was Naruto half-dead dragging Sasuke back… or was it the other way around?

It had been hours since she'd heard that news and she'd already sent off three different teams on new searches. It would leave Konoha unprotected in a way that she was more than just a little bit uncomfortable with, but the other option – losing both Sasuke _and_ Naruto – was unthinkable.

"Hokage-sama," one of her ANBU members greeted as he flung himself through the tower's window and into her office. She turned immediately, giving him her full attention.

"What?" she demanded, disliking his slightly defeated posture and felt a blaze of anger through her veins. "Why are you alone? Where are they?"

Her anger reverberated through the room and she saw the well-trained man shudder a bit.

"There are dozens… dozens and dozens of Sound nins surrounding the border. We couldn't get close without complete annihilation," he informed her, bowing and uncomfortable with having to be the one to give her this information. He'd obviously drawn the short straw.

"Did you _try_! You're ninja of _Konoha_, damnit!" she howled, shoving her already-destroyed desk out of the way and marching towards the man with murder in her eyes.

"Tsunade!" she heard and turned her body to see a familiar mane of prickly white hair in her window. She felt some of the anger deflate. Finally! She could… just a little bit, but she could rest, let her guard down.

"Get out of my office!" she snarled at the poor ANBU and turned instead to her former teammate.

She barely noticed the blur that left the moment that the words 'get out' had been spoken in her speed to release her tension on someone of a more substantial and less subservient nature.

"It's true," he sighed, and she saw the strain of anger running through him almost more than she felt it within herself. "He took them both…"

"We don't know what happened," Tsunade snapped angrily at her lack of information.

"When I heard, I checked a few of my other resources first, but _he_ found me out and chased me out before I could actually do anything. I was hoping that maybe… maybe it wasn't true," the frustration pouring out of those words was almost enough to send her to her knees. Not even Jiraiya could do anything.

"Then I'll go," she declared. "We can go together. He can't stand against both of us."

"Tsunade," he sighed and she felt the defeat of that tone. "We wouldn't just be going up against _him_. If it had just been… I would have been able to do it. We can't defeat the army of Sound."

"We could damn well try!" she declared.

"And Konoha?" he logically pointed out, and she felt yet another pin prick her world and send it shattering to her knees.

"I can't lose him, Jiraiya… I can't. Not him… not again, not and be able to retain…" she felt the tears clouding her voice and she felt such shame that she had to turn her face away. Poor little girl, unable to help them, unable to help anyone… not him… please, God, not Naruto, couldn't the world just be fair… once? Couldn't she keep her hope just this once?

"We'll get him back," she heard promised to her before she was gathered into still-strong arms and held tightly against the man's body. Under any other circumstances, she would have castrated him if he touched her like this, but these were anything but normal and she needed him about as much as she needed to breathe at the moment.

"Damn right we will," she declared, but they both knew it was an empty statement. Not even Naruto was worth sacrificing the entire village for. The thought was the final straw and caused another bought of sobs from her.

Another one gone.

...

She didn't know what was more destructive to her life at this moment: the fact that Sasuke had left of his own free will after knocking her out, or the fact that she'd sent Naruto after him only to get captured himself.

Sure… she'd never really liked Naruto, and to be perfectly honest, she'd used him in an attempt to get Sasuke back, but that didn't mean that she wanted him to _die_.

When Kakashi had first told her the news, she'd had no concept of what to make of it. She hadn't just lost one of them, she'd lost both, and she had no idea whether or not either was alive.

She started walking about an hour after she heard, helpless and pathetic. Kakashi had attempted to offer some sort of half-assed comfort, but she was guessing that he had to be feeling _something_ towards this situation as well.

In her heart, even though she knew it was stupid, she blamed him. He hadn't been strong enough to bring them both back. She couldn't blame Sasuke… could she? Wasn't this all his fault? NO!

Sasuke… Sasuke was just… trying to get… something, just trying to get revenge. It was important to him, and because it was important to him… Oh God.

They were gone.

She felt more tears crush her soul as she walked even more desolately towards the borders of Konoha and debated following them.

She'd never been as skilled as them, never been helpful, never actually done anything. She couldn't protect Tazuna in the country of Wave, couldn't protect _them_ during the second part of the Chuunin Exam and was held as a hostage by Gaara in the third part. She was useless.

The guilt of the past joined the newly present gashes and sent her psyche gushing blood once more. She stared out emptily into the world and tried to decide where to go from there.

She had to get them back… she had to. She was… she was nothing without them.

Without Sasuke she had nothing but Naruto… and without Naruto.

Her green eyes hardened for a second.

Without Naruto, she had Kakashi.

Turning on her heel, she wandered with purpose this time. She wouldn't just flounder aimlessly. She wouldn't just sit around and mope and cry and sob and feel useless. If she couldn't bring them back _now_, then she'd just have to do it later. She'd bridge the gap between them.

_She had to._

...

All his life he'd always had white hair. The hair had been present to get him teased when he was younger and people told him that he was a grandpa. Obito had been especially bad for that. The boy's teasing was insufferable. He'd been the Naruto to Kakashi's Sasuke… minus the obsession and demonic presences.

However, even with white hair… he'd never really felt old before. He wasn't old now, as a matter of fact, but he felt it. He felt it deep in his bones that he was old… too old to help, too old to save his own damn students.

When he'd left Sasuke at the tree, he'd truly thought the boy had learnt his lesson. Revenge… it wasn't everything, hell, it wasn't _anything_.

His entire team had died through the years, his mother when he was young, his father committed suicide soon after. His world was one of chaos and mourning, but he'd decided very quickly not to linger on it and turn it bitter. Obito had taught him that.

He'd thought… maybe that Naruto would be able to teach Sasuke that. It was true that Kakashi had about as much patience towards Naruto as he had for Obito – which meant absolutely none – but he still had the fondness that was required to be in any sort of mentor position. Any prolonged period of time with the orange-clad 'moron-of-morons' as Sasuke had named him, would have probably driven him insane.

There was more than one reason as to why he'd refused to teach Naruto during the Chuunin Exams. Reasons far more important than simply wanting to train Sasuke: Naruto was an idiot. Naruto was impatient. He had a lacklustre ability to understand and a pigheaded nature that would get him hurt more than help him… just like Obito, just like Kushina, just like Jiraiya.

Kakashi wasn't meant to teach someone like that, or even _deal_ with someone like that. It was like mixing oil and water and setting it on fire – a goddamned mess.

Still… his one eye traced the name of Namikaze Minato on the shrine, not too far away from Uchiha Obito, and knew that he owed it to them. No, he didn't like Naruto very much… but he shouldn't have… he shouldn't have just _ignored_ him either.

It was cruel… it was oh so very human.

Kakashi couldn't be human. He'd learnt that long ago. Being human was weakness beyond what he could even fathom. Being human meant _admitting_ to that weakness and then giving into it and allowing that weakness to eat at your soul.

He was so much more than just _human_. He'd thought that, perhaps, Sasuke was as well. Unfortunately… it would appear that Sasuke was less like him than he'd originally hoped. Sasuke was a genius, to be sure, but not worthy of as much attention and time as what he'd wasted on him.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

The words broke him out of his moderately-self-pitying-montage and then threw in his face the fact that he'd just viewed himself as being separate from the human race. Yeesh, he really _did_ have that big of an ego, didn't he?

"Yo!" he greeted cheerfully enough, not remembering for a second that something bad had just happened and that he was probably supposed to be upset over it.

The almost-wince that he observed in his last Konoha-bound student reminded him and he felt his hand fall limply to his side. Sad… he was supposed to be sad.

But he wasn't sad. He was nothing, as his mental conditioning had always taught him. Feel nothing… that way nothing hurts. True, he couldn't very well draw on emotions during fights, but that also meant that he was free from the downfalls as well. He didn't get angry, didn't get stupid, didn't get sad, and didn't get defeated. Sakura… she was sad, she was angry, she was defeated, and she was stupid. She… was nothing compared to the other two, even Naruto.

Emotions were dangerous... emotions destroyed people and emotions were very hard to avoid. The white haired nin felt he had far too many emotions... too many emotions to keep closed, to keep capped. It was difficult to pretend that you didn't care. It was difficult to force yourself to believe that you could allow your student to be destroyed.

He closed his eyes to that train of thought as Sakura slowly advanced, as though terrified of the stone that he was gazing at. Was she scared of her teammate's names being on there? He hadn't even had the chance to fathom that idea before Obito had died... he could understand being scared of the stone. He almost wished he had that luxury.

"Sensei… I want you to teach me," Sakura stated as she walked up beside him and he felt a sort of odd understanding between them.

She wasn't asking for the sympathy that he wouldn't show, and she wasn't demanding him to teach her his more difficult techniques, like Naruto. She was just… asking him.

"I don't think I'm the proper person for that-" he started to deflect.

"Kakashi-sensei, you're the only person left," she reminded him brutally and coldly.

Maybe she wasn't worthless after all.


End file.
